Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night the Treasurer delivered the Turnbull budget, which purported to be a plan for jobs and growth but is really a plan for cuts and unfairness. It delivers tax cuts for the banks and multinationals at the expense of Australian families, particularly those in Moreton. It is a Liberal budget to its core. There are cuts to schools, cuts to Medicare, cuts to families that will increase their cost of living, cuts to higher education, cuts to veterans' hospitals, a GP tax by stealth and tax breaks for banks and multinationals.

For families in Moreton this will mean that a couple on a single income of $87,000 and with two children in primary school will be nearly $2,500 worse off. A sole parent with an income of $65,000 and two children in high school will be nearly $5,000 worse off. A couple with an income of $50,000 each and two children in high school will be over $2,500 worse off each year. A couple with an income of $90,000 and three children in primary school will be nearly $3,000 worse off each year—all this while millionaires will receive two tax cuts and be $16,715 better off each year.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, please, members!

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The top 10 per cent of income earners are getting the vast majority of the Turnbull government's tax cuts. In fact, politicians will get a tax cut, while 75 per cent of Australians will get none at all—surely a sign that the Treasurer has got it horribly wrong. Pensioners in Moreton will be hundreds of dollars worse off each year due to Mr Turnbull's budget. Single pensioners will be $366 a year worse off and couples $550 a year worse off. And the government has done that despite the tripling of the budget, as announced by Treasurer Morrison.

This budget is looking after the big end of town, while cutting payments to families, pensioners, schools and hospitals. So desperate is Mr Turnbull to give a tax cut to the top end of town, he has even changed the definition of a small business. This budget puts big business and high-income earners before families. It is an un-Australian budget. This budget does nothing to set up Australia for the future. In fact, this budget will undermine our egalitarian future at a time when wages growth is the lowest it has been since they have been recording wages increases, and also when we are becoming a more unequal society. The president of the AMA—not exactly a friend of the Labor Party—Professor Brian Owler said about this budget: 'The poorest, the sickest and the most vulnerable will be the hardest hit.' Now more than ever, the difference between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party could not be any starker.

Honourable members interjecting—

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Excuse me, members. The member has a right to be heard. Please allow him to be so.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Turnbull and the Liberals will only look after the high-income earners and multinationals, while the Labor Party—

Honourable members interjecting—

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, please, members!

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

will do what we have always done. Labor will put the people first.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I strongly welcome the 2016 budget delivered last night, because it is more than just a budget. It is an economic plan for Australia, for a strong new economy with more jobs and growth, which is fantastic news for local families and local businesses in my electorate of Robertson on the New South Wales Central Coast.

I am thrilled to see how the focus of this tax plan backs hardworking families and businesses. This is a budget that will drive jobs and growth across the country, with real benefits for thousands of people and businesses. Already, I am hearing positive stories on street corners and train stations on the Central Coast, from people like Darren and Bec, who told me: 'This budget is just what we needed. It puts us in a better position today than we were in yesterday.' There are many other examples of comments like this, because this is a budget that delivers tax cuts and incentives for local small businesses and relief for hardworking families. For example, the budget will introduce a low-income superannuation tax offset from 1 July next year. This will ensure that low-income earners are not paying more tax on their superannuation than they are on their take-home pay. This means that more than 21,000 people in my electorate of Robertson earning $37,000 per year or less will effectively pay no tax on the money they contribute to superannuation.

We also know that it is business, not government, that creates jobs. Sometimes, of course, government can play a direct role, such as our major commitment to deliver 600 new federal jobs in Gosford. But it is the coffee-shop economics—the flow-on effects and the hard work of our small business owners and employees, who are those we need to back so we can build a strong economy. As we transition from the mining investment boom, these businesses deserve every opportunity to invest, grow and employ more people, so they can thrive, prosper and succeed locally on the Central Coast. From 1 July this year, small and medium businesses with an annual turnover of less than $10 million will have their company tax rate cut to 27.5 per cent. This will reduce the tax rate for more than 5,200 companies in Robertson. Crucially, the Turnbull government will also increase access to a range of small business tax concessions to more Australian businesses with turnover of less than $10 million. This is great news for more than 15,000 businesses in my electorate, who will be able to access these concessions.

Every day, people raise with me the need for jobs for our young people. Last night's release of a new PaTH to youth employment will help young people through Australia's economic transition. The government will invest over $840 million over four years in a youth employment package that will assist up to 120,000 vulnerable young people. These measures will further boost young people's job prospects by helping them to be better prepared for the workforce.

The budget also has great news, with guaranteed funding, for health, education and roads, and I know that there will be much more to say about the need for better infrastructure in our region.